Keith David
Keith David Williams is an American actor. He is mostly known for his bass voice and screen presence in over 400 roles across film, stage, television, and interactive media.
He has starred in such films as The Thing, Platoon, They Live, Dead Presidents, Armageddon, There's Something About Mary, Requiem for a Dream, Pitch Black, Barbershop, Crash, The Chronicles of Riddick, Cloud Atlas, The Nice Guys, Nope, and American Fiction. He starred as Elroy Patashnik in the sixth season of the NBC series Community and as Bishop James Greenleaf in the Oprah Winfrey Network drama Greenleaf.
His Emmy-winning voice acting career includes work as the narrator of Ken Burns films such as The War and Muhammad Ali. In film, he has voiced Dr. Facilier in The Princess and the Frog and the Cat in Coraline. On television, he portrayed Goliath in Gargoyles, Al Simmons / Spawn in Todd McFarlane's Spawn, The Flame King in Adventure Time, Andre Curtis / The President in Rick and Morty, King Andrias in Amphibia, Dr. Tenma in Pluto, and Husk in Hazbin Hotel. Video game roles include the Arbiter Thel 'Vadamee in the Halo franchise, Julius Little and himself in the Saints Row series, Captain Anderson in the Mass Effect series, Chaos in Dissidia Final Fantasy, Sergeant Foley in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, and Commander Zavala in Destiny 2: The Final Shape, which he assumed after the death of Lance Reddick in March 2023. He was part of the cast of The Nightmare Before Christmas live concert in October 2025, where he voiced Oogie Boogie, taking over the role from its long-time original voice actor Ken Page following his death in September 2024.
In July 2025, David was selected to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2026.
Early life and education
David was born June 4, 1956, in Harlem and raised in Corona, Queens, New York City. His mother, Dolores, was a manager at New York Telephone, and his father, Lester Williams, worked as a director of payroll operations.He initially intended to become an actor after playing the Cowardly Lion in a school production of The Wizard of Oz and went on to study at Manhattan's High School of Performing Arts. He attended the Juilliard School's Drama Division where he graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1979.
Career
Film and television
In 1980–81, David toured the country with John Houseman's The Acting Company in productions of A Midsummer Night's Dream and Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot. Less than two years later, he went on to star as Childs, opposite Kurt Russell in John Carpenter's The Thing, starting his lengthy on-screen career. In the 1980s run of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, he portrayed Keith the Southwood Carpenter in the Neighborhood of Make-Believe segments. He also played Keith, the game coin collector in an episode where Rogers and a small child learn to play the arcade game Donkey Kong.He went on to appear in films such as Platoon, They Live, Men at Work, Marked for Death, and Stars and Bars. He played Kirby in the 1995 film Dead Presidents, and he appeared in the 1995 Spike Lee film Clockers. Roles in other films followed, in Volcano, There's Something About Mary, Requiem for a Dream, Pitch Black, Barbershop, Agent Cody Banks, Head of State, Hollywood Homicide, Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London, The Chronicles of Riddick, Crash, ATL, Delta Farce and First Sunday.
He portrayed "Father" in the romantic comedy action film Mr. & Mrs. Smith. At the same time, he has appeared in numerous independent films including the critically acclaimed Requiem for a Dream, playing the role of Big Tim. He has also appeared extensively in television productions since the 1980s and as a regular character Lieutenant Williams on the short-lived television series The Job. He was a regular on another shoot, The Big House, made for ABC in 2004. David portrayed Detective Jim Crenshaw in the 2010 horror film Chain Letter.
In 2010, David was cast as Max Malini for the NBC television series The Cape. On April 18, 2011, Keith appeared in the 21st episode of season one of Hawaii Five-0 as criminal tycoon Jimmy Cannon. In 2012, he appeared in the horror film Smiley and the science-fiction drama Cloud Atlas. In 2013, David appeared in the controversial drama Boiling Pot which is based on true events of racism. In 2014, David portrayed Command Sergeant Major Donald Cody in the Fox comedy series Enlisted. Later in 2014, David was cast as Elroy Patashnik in the sixth season of the sitcom Community.
In 2015, David was cast in the leading role alongside Lynn Whitfield in the Oprah Winfrey Network drama series Greenleaf.
Voice acting
David also works extensively as a voice actor. He was the voice of the Flame King in Adventure Time, King Andrias from Amphibia, Goliath from Gargoyles, the title character in the Spawn animated series, and Lemuel Kane in Archer. In the English dub of Princess Mononoke, David played the narrator and Okkoto. He played the role of Mama in the English dub of 3×3 Eyes. He provided the voice for the character Decker in the role-playing video game Fallout and the voice for the character Vhailor in Planescape: Torment. He provided the voice of the Arbiter for the video game Halo 2, released in 2004; later, he reprised that role in the Xbox 360 follow-up Halo 3. He portrayed the character again in Halo: The Master Chief Collection and also in Halo 5: Guardians, released in 2014 and 2015 respectively. He played the role of Captain David Anderson in BioWare's Mass Effect series.David did voice work in the video game Saints Row and its sequel Saints Row II, playing gang leader of the 3rd Street Saints Julius Little, as well as voicing himself in Saints Row IV.
He is also heard on the intro of several Ice Cube projects, including Westside Connection's 2003 release Terrorist Threats, Cube's 2008 solo album Raw Footage, Cube's 2010 solo album I Am the West, and he narrated the documentary Beef II, which also featured Ice Cube.
He provides the voice for the UPS "What Can Brown Do for You" commercials. He did the voice of Despero in the two part episode "Hearts and Minds" of Justice League. He has done voice work for early Adult Swim commercials for Inuyasha.
He has worked with documentary filmmaker Ken Burns numerous times, narrating Burns' Jazz, Mark Twain, The War, Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson, Jackie Robinson, Muhammad Ali, and Leonardo da Vinci. David won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance for his work in The War and Unforgivable Blackness. He performs the narration duties in the BBC documentary, World War II: Behind Closed Doors.
The 2004 PBS documentary Ancient Refuge in the Holy Land and the 2005 History Channel documentary Crusades: Crescent & the Cross focusing on the medieval Crusades were both narrated by him, as well as the 2003 National Geographic documentary Inside Mecca. He later parodied his documentary work by narrating the 2012 episode of Community, "Pillows and Blankets", a mockumentary revolving around a pillow fight between rival blanket forts.
David has done voice-over work for many other documentaries including several for National Geographic and the documentary Comic Book Superheroes Unmasked for the History Channel. He replaced Paul Winfield as narrator for the A&E show City Confidential, taking over after Winfield's death in 2004. He voiced the trailer for the film Primeval, which was released in the United States on January 12, 2007.
David provided the voice of police detective Alex Cross for the audiobook versions of three novels by James Patterson: Cat and Mouse, Pop Goes the Weasel, and Roses are Red. Other voice roles include Bebe Proud Clone from The Proud Family Movie, Atlas from Teen Titans, the lone renegade male gorilla Tublat in The Legend of Tarzan, and the Decepticon Barricade in Transformers: The Game.
He voiced Apollo the Sun God in Hercules, Council Member in Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, the Black Cat in Coraline, Sergeant Foley in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Dr. Facilier in The Princess and the Frog, and Big Man in The Spectacular Spider-Man episode "Survival of the Fittest".
On May 25, 2008, he narrated Kansas City's Celebration at the Station, a Memorial Day service held annually at the World War I Memorial. During the ceremony, he announced the attendance of Frank W. Buckles, the last living veteran of World War I. He was the voice of Frederick Douglass in the third episode of the PBS documentary God in America: How Religious Liberty Shaped America in 2010.
David returned to the Saints Row series in Saints Row IV, voicing a fictionalized version of himself as well as reprising Julius Little. He is the narrator of the History Channel series The Bible which premiered on March 3, 2013.
David voiced the superhero gorilla Solovar in the two-part Gorilla City episode of The Flash. Keith David also has a recurring role as the President of the United States in the adult animated series Rick and Morty.
David was the narrator of the MLB Network special Mr. Padre, the video biography of San Diego Padres Hall-of-Fame outfielder Tony Gwynn.
David has also narrated several WWE documentaries including The True Story of Wrestlemania and the 20 episodes of The Monday Night War, documenting the battle between WWE Raw and WCW Nitro.
David later recurred in Stargirl as the voice of Mister Bones.
David began voicing Commander Zavala in the Destiny franchise beginning in Destiny 2: The Final Shape, replacing Lance Reddick following his death.
David also voiced the character Brian Robertson in the revival series of King of the Hill.